Malcolm save the Acid for the Floor, there is no point taking damage right now. rememeber what happen when you tried to steal Tork Keys. When we confront him with the dead owner and Sacrem this will turn ugly. i know you want to find your sister but we need to get ready for Tork.

I will start the acid process since it will take 15 minutes or so and move on with the party.

That sounds good, let's move up to the room right above here, let Malcolm pour the acid and then start our search while it works. I'd bet we finish up in 15 minutes, regardless.

Once everything is settled, before we start sneaking around, I'll let the party know that I can feel this other presence, or whatever it is that was causing me to be so uneasy back in the tavern. Not to confuse things further, but that uneasy feeling is back... It's almost like someone is turning it on or off. I think I can figure out where it's coming from while we search...

you concentrate a bit longer and start to understand that you're feeling the presence of auras of some sort. Of what and why, you don't know. You only know there are several auras and one is particularly strong. A few more moments and you'll be able to determine how many and where they're located.

Having made the collective decision, Malcolm checks his tools, gathers up his caltrops and the party heads upstairs to go place the acid in the aformentioned locale. In the meantime, Nemoris continues to close his eyes in consternation, unconsciously turning and facing up and north, but he follows the group.

The party pops out of the stairs through the shattered door to a different scene than before. Malcolm's line shines out illuminating the lounging form of the half-orc innkeeper, but the moonlight through the windows and the door makes it easy for all to see. Dressed in ranger's leathers that are cut and slit in odd places, he's draped across one of the metal tables. One arm holds a piece of meat to his mouth that he's idly chewing on and one leg hangs off the side of the counter. His other hand is resting on the top of Pad's head, drumming it slowly. The child is petrified, standing there quivering, as Tork in a casual, flippant manner (completely different than earlier) speaks. "Damn ... was hoping you'd bust down that door and save me a week or two of starving her out. Ah well, I've kept the charade up long enough, I suppose it can go a bit longer. Drunks are easy to fool, although the way you humans live in this civilized, structured life is horribly ... dull. Need to get out of here and get back to ..." he trails off, thinking, and then refocuses,"You five, though ... you probably need to go ... too many questions leading to too many half-answers. Anything to say before we add you to the compost heap?"

Either speak or take action

Nemoris:

You determine there are 4 auras, 1 strong and 1 faint (flickering on and off, actually) directly above you. There are 2 moderate auras 15-20 feet above you and about 30 feet south. You still don't know what the aura is, but you have a nails on the chalkboard feeling the entire time.

When you get upstairs, you realize the strong aura is Tork and the flickering aura is Pad. At the end of Tork's statement, you feel an urge to come to him that you easily suppress, but it surprises you with it's ferocity and it's suddenness, almost like he commanded you and your body answered.

The half-orc smiles a your actions, but doesn't move. "I'm not ready yet, let's not get too hasty. We can still talk some things through, yes?". As he says this, Pad raises a knife to his own throat and holds it there drawing blood.

"Tork since you are clearly in a position of little threat from us, which is clear by your relaxed manner...You can at least humor us with the real answers we seek. You know all those that we are looking for. How many have you killed so far? Which ones? The best question of all, and one that still perplexes me, why are you involved at all?"

Sorry, just posted it really fast in between work calls, didn't even notice it was a 20. Edited the post to include crit confirms, I'll do that by default from now on to avoid that. If we need to use the first crit confirm that's fine too, I had originally just put it in up in the post, but it switched up the order and had the crit confirm on the first attack to 20, and then a 2 on my 2nd attack, kinda weird!

I'm also ok with waiting, but will attack if I sense any other auras moving, if Tork makes a hostile movement, or if Pad does anything else to harm himself.

Looking for the trick shot and it only mentions unattended objects. Dagger in hand is an attended object and I believe ranged disarm is a separate feat/special ability. Unless I'm missing something? Dagger would qualify as tiny object, for what its worth.

Looking for the trick shot and it only mentions unattended objects. Dagger in hand is an attended object and I believe ranged disarm is a separate feat/special ability. Unless I'm missing something? Dagger would qualify as tiny object, for what its worth.

Awaiting Magma and Epik's decisions to talk or fight.

"Let's negotiate Tork. What is it you want from us? Release the child and we'll work out a deal."

"It fills me with glee that you have no idea what I'm doing here ... this little trinket has worked so well," The half-orc sits up and reaches toward his face, pulling off the top half seemingly. His have shimmers and changes, the piece he pulled off turning into a small half-mask, which he tosses to the side. The half-orc looks frighteningly different now with multi-colored, tatoos and swirls, all flowing into each other and forming one predominant one on his forehead. His ears, nose, eyebrows, cheeks, lips, chin, shoulders and neck are all pierced with various bits of jewelry, most made of bone.

Knowledge Religion DC:10:

The symbol in his forehead is one of Hextor.

"A lovely young priestess asked me for her help one night as we lay awake in bed after a particularly engaging evening. She had a plan ... a very successful one I might add ... to relieve a certain do-gooder of his valuables. It worked along with my desire to take my domination of the jungles to the disgusting meat that tromped through this inn night after night. We both won." He finishes chewing on his food and reaches over to grab a flask of something to wash it down.

After Epik's statement, the barbaric half-orc shrugs and Pad lowers his knife. "Watch and learn, boy, if you live through this ... it will be your life some day."

"Tork....What is your real name? If you are interested in ruling the jungle, surely you want to be known. Whom was this Do-Gooder...Did happen to be Annah Taskerhill?" (I know it's not, just trying to stir interest for him to talk more)

I assumed everyone held their action from the discussion since there was risk to Pad ... all actions will be resolved in round by round, so if you choose to do that, we start combat (regardless if everyone fights, it just determine who acts first)

Sleight of Hand: opposed vs his perception to draw and then opposed vs his perception to shoot (2 checks). Shooting will start a surprise round. If you fail, we start combat rounds as per above.

Dalamus wrote:

"Tork ... what is your real name?"

"You Cauldronites use my name and that of my father, and my father's father to scare children to sleep for 100 years. I'm a legend in these jungles thought to be nothing more than a story. I assure you, I'm very real and very much a horror." He smiles and takes another drink.

Sense Motive DC25 or Knowledge Arcana DC15:

You realize that the half-orc isn't drinking down wine or water to cleanse his pallet. He's drinking potions! You get to act (1 standard or 1 move action) now if you wish and call this a surprise round. Roll initiative.

Oh...I did not know that. Shooting then I guess. Do you need new dice rolls or just ignore the Intimidate roll? Because if we bump everything up then I will fail my sense motive check and have no idea what he is doing.

Since you were waiting for them to move, yes you get to move right before them in the surprise round, not Tork ... it wasn't his actions that triggered your ready. I'll roll their initiative and have you act 1 before them ... it may or may not be before Tork

Malcolm:

No ... you don't have enough of the intricacies of the religion (knowledge: religion) to ID all the various symbols she uses. While you may have seen it, you don't recognize it as a religious thing in its current incarnation

In an explosion of motion, the world comes alive. Malcolm screams and fires at Tork winging him in the shoulder as he drinks down, Nemoris lets fly a pair of arrows missing twice as the door at the top of the stairs bursts open and a pair of hill baboons enter, howling and hissing led on collars by the two barmaids from earlier.

Tork leaps up on the counter in a rage his body blurred in its movement by some magical protection, "Fools, you could have worked yourselves a life of immortality, instead you're destined to become just another victim of Tongueater!" and with that, his body and that of the 2 barmaids changes shape, twisting and growing. His nose elongates and grows vicious fangs, hair sprouts from all over his body and claws extend from his lengthened arms. His face grows blue and red tissue under his nose and along his cheeks. Half-baboon, half-orc ... he roars and a massive falchion appears in his hands.

Spellcraft DC17:

The blurred effect is the spell blur

Knowledge Arcana DC16:

The creatures are lycanthropes, specifically were-baboons, vulnerable only to silver, and infectious in their bites

Nemoris:

Before you ask, you missed on your crit because of the magical blur ... miss chance 20% inside the dice spoiler. When he changes, you feel something snap inside you and you realize he's calling to your bloodline ... that ancient lycanthrope somewhere in your past. The strength of his call is phenomenal and it unlocks a genetic barrier allowing you to get closer to your past. We can discuss more later. For now, you can detect lycanthropes at will, but take an additional point of damage from silver weapons (for a total of 2 extra)

a reminder that knowledge skills can only be used untrained if the DC is 10 or less. Also, please post round by round when possible, at least no more than 2 rounds in advance. I can't keep track of which ones I've used and which ones I haven't so I generally will only take the one off the top and ask you to reroll especially when the round isn't identified.

I still think I would have attacked before Tork did anything, if the auras were moving at all, but that's alright. You can move through an allied occupied space if they are willing, correct?

1d100 ⇒ 861d100 ⇒ 60

In case there isn't a quick reply or I can't get back online and update:

My goal is to move myself out of melee range and attack Tork again, just a single arrow, unless I can move out of melee range with a 5 foot step (if Dalamus moves I think I can take his spot). If I can't do that without provoking an attack of opportunity then I'll have to re-evaluate.

I still think I would have attacked before Tork did anything, if the auras were moving at all, but that's alright.

Technically, you'd have had to stop detecting in order to ready an action, but either way, your actions were predicated on the afflicted's movement, not on Tongueater's potion drinking (can't ready based on 2 separate triggers). Malcolm essentially started the fight by firing at him. Mixing combat and non-combat actions gets dicey, especially when we toss in a surprise round. By rights, you should have been able to act in a surprise round with the afflicted which would have been a separate surprise round from the one with Tongueater and Malcolm, but that gets messy ... so, here we are.

Nemoris wrote:

You can move through an allied occupied space if they are willing, correct?

Yes.

Nemoris wrote:

My goal is to move myself out of melee range and attack Tork again, just a single arrow, unless I can move out of melee range with a 5 foot step (if Dalamus moves I think I can take his spot). If I can't do that without provoking an attack of opportunity then I'll have to re-evaluate.

The map is deceiving. Those baboons are above you and don't threaten you yet. They're coming down the stairs and will exit near Tongueater.